Blue Moon, Red Moon
by The-Lost-Ninjas
Summary: Prince Sasuke finds himself suddenly forced to care for an unusually intelligent fox demon named Naruto. SasuNaru Yaoi.
1. Chapter 1

All right people, here it is, as promised, the beginning of our new story. A couple of warnings…this one will not be as cute and chibi-ish as the last one…but it is good. Secondly, it's long. Extremely long…like…200+ pages long, so this may take a while. Please be patient with us.

Also, some things I would like to clear up about Foxed!. First of all, thank you everyone for the positive reviews…and the sheer number of reviews for that matter (616 and counting O.o), it is very nice to know that your work is appreciated. And while we definitely appreciate constructive criticism I would like to ask that our use of Japanese words not be questioned…we don't use them unless we know what we want to portray. For example, we had Naruto call Sasuke 'Sasuke-chan' because he was teasing him. And we did not want them to say they loved each other at the end but instead wrote Arigato.

Also, there were several reviewers who pointed out bad spelling for which we apologize. We write these stories on msn and it all has to be edited afterwards. To make matters worse one of us has dyslexia so there are often a great number of misspelled words, and even worse, misused words that are difficult sometimes to pick up during the editing process. We did have a beta reader for a while but it became inconvenient with our infrequent updating so we just ended up putting them up as they were. If there is someone out there who would like the job you're more than welcome to take it, but you will have to be patient with us. If not, then type-o's are an inevitable reality and we are well aware of their existence, but are too lazy to go over the stories three or four times to try and catch them.

Now, enough ranting…onto the story! It's one of the best that we've done so hopefully you will all enjoy it.

Chapter 1

Iruka sighed as the hot sun beat down on his head. He was out in the markets looking at all the new merchandise that was on display. The merchants had just come in with new stock and Iruka, even though he hated shopping and the sun was making him unbearably hot, knew he would kick himself later if he did not go now. Not really finding much that suited his interest, Iruka moved on to the slave markets. Not that he was going to buy a slave but the demons that the slavers brought in were always a sight to see.

He wandered down the little street where the slave market was going on, peering into the various cages. There were a lot of dog and wolf demons for sale...they were common demons that could be found anywhere and were good for menial labour. Iruka, however, moved quickly to the end of the street, where the more exotic creatures were held, and walked slowly through. There wasn't really much of a selection today...as he wandered past a few cages, however, a bright orange colour caught his eye. Hunching down to get a better look, he found a small fox demon...young by the look of it, stuck halfway between demon and human form.

The demon's legs were drawn up to his chest with a bright orange tail wrapped around them shielding some of his nakedness. A head of bright yellow hair, which suck out in all directions, was shading his eyes preventing Iruka from seeing the colour. The large fox ears were drooping with misery as he hunched in the small cage.

As if feeling Iruka's gaze on him the small fox demon looked up and stared at him with the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen.

Iruka stared at the animal a while before giving it a small smile. "Hello there..." He spoke up, at which point the demon squeaked in fear and hid again, trembling all over. Iruka couldn't help but feel his heart go out to the poor creature...it was so young, and judging by the bruising on its body, it hadn't had that great of a life. He looked up at the slave vendor who was standing over his wares. "Excuse me..." He spoke up to get his attention.

The slaver scratched at his ear like he had fleas, and Iruka didn't really like the look of the man. He seemed to look more like hired muscle then a legitimate demon slaver.

"Yeah, What you want?" the man demanded as if he couldn't really be bothered.

Iruka sighed and stood up, "How much for the fox demon?" he asked as the guy scratched his ass and drew his brow together, thinking.

"100 gold pieces." The man answered at last, and Iruka stared at him then stood up.

"For this little creature, he isn't even worth half that." Iruka told him calmly. The little fox demon lifted its head a little to regard him as he spoke.

"He's rare." The man answered.

Iruka, however, was stubborn when he wanted to be, and managed to haggle the man down to 40 gold pieces...a little more than he would have liked to pay but it was ok.

"Fine, Fine!" the man finally gave up on getting a good price for the demon and settled on getting rid of it. Taking Iruka's gold coins, he kicked at the cage, "Come on you!" he said, jarring the demon from his huddled position in the corner, "You got yourself a new master now get out of that cage I got more important things to do." He kicked the cage more violently and the fox demon yelped in pain and surprise before stumbling out onto the dirt at Iruka's feet. Turning and hissing at the man, the fox looked like he was ready to take his finger off but then cowered as the man grabbed him by the caller and attached a chain.

"There you go mister, pleasure doing business with you."

Iruka blinked as the chain was roughly shoved into his hand and the man went back to his business. He looked down at his purchase, who seemed torn between running away and huddling up against his leg to hide from the frightening man. He tugged gently on the chain. "Come on, little one, let's get you home." He told the demon in a quiet voice. It looked up at him and blinked its blue eyes in confusion, but when Iruka moved forward it obediently followed him.

Iruka looked back at the small demon he now owned, what was he going to do with it? It wasn't like they needed any more slaves, and this child was too small for manual labour. He barely reached Iruka's chest. Sighing, Iruka decided to give him to the heir to the Kingdom, his future boss, but at this point in time his student. Uchiha Sasuke. Maybe the demon could be a personal attendant or something.

He realized that the demon was huddled over as he walked, with his tail wrapped around himself, timidly hiding his unmentionables from the public. He didn't know that demons cared about that kind of thing...Sighing, he pulled off his outermost robe and draped it over the demon's shoulders. It blinked and stared at him, wide eyed, then took it off and tried to give it back.

Iruka couldn't help but smile a little as he knelt down and wrapped the robe around its shoulders again. "It's alright, you take it for now." He told it gently.

The bright blue eyes stared up at Iruka in astonishment. A blush spread across the whisker-like striped cheeks as the demon ducked his head and pulled the jacket Iruka had placed on him closer. Iruka smiled and ruffled its blonde hair, this demon was so young and innocent he couldn't help but think the fox was cute.

Standing up again Iruka resumed walking with the fox trailing behind closely.

At last, the two of them reached the castle, where the little fox's hopefully new master was waiting. That is, of course, if the dark haired boy decided that he in fact wanted to keep it...he was being moody as of late...

He led the little fox demon into the building, and it stared up in awe at the inside of the castle, blue eyes widened almost to the size of saucers.

Hiding himself behind Iruka the small boy fox stared up at the castle with wonder and probably a lot of fear. Iruka smiled and shock his head; this demon was sure different from any other demon he had dealt with in the past.

Just as he was lost in thoughts about the fox Iruka was interrupted when a very loud and very green captain of the guard jumped in front of him and loudly challenged him. Iruka cringed a little as he saw the guy's big eyebrows and even bigger grin sparkling in the sunlight.

The demon squeaked in surprise and fear and cowered behind Iruka to get away from the scary, scary man with the scary eyebrows and even scarier eyes...plus he was very, very loud and was probably hurting his sensitive ears.

Iruka sighed. "Gai...it's me, Iruka, the prince's personal attendant, remember?" He asked, exasperated.

"Oh yeah, and just what is that?" Gai asked, pointing to the cowering child behind him.

Iruka sighed and rubbed his head, which maid his topknot to sway back and forth in front of the young demons eyes who was cowering behind him.

Iruka opened his mouth to answer the very simple question when he felt something grab onto his topknot. "Ack!" Iruka cried and leaned backwards to relieve the pull on his hair.

Gai, thinking that the small child behind him was attacking Iruka, was ready to come to his rescue. He grabbed the demon, who squirmed and hissed trying to get away and releasing the topknot he'd grabbed onto because it looked so interesting waving back and forth like that.

Iruka turned around quickly. "Gai, stop!" He yelled, and snatched the demon from his arms. It actually quieted down and allowed Iruka to hold it, glaring at the scary green man that had assaulted it.

Iruka sighed with relief when the demon stopped hissing at Gai who was staring at it in shock. "That's a Demon." Gai said stupidly and Iruka sighed.

"Yes Gai he is, I bought him earlier at the markets."

Gai rubbed his chin looking at the scrawny thing in Iruka's arms, "Doesn't seem to be that good for labour...looks pretty young too..."

The demon pulled back as Gai leered closer, and hid his face in Iruka's chest to hide. "He's pretty timid, too, what good is a demon like that?" Gai asked.

Iruka sighed. "I was going to give it to the prince, perhaps he can find a use for it..." He explained. "Can I go now? I have things I need to do."

Gai blinked, then nodded and waved his arm. "Sure, go ahead...but if that demon causes trouble I want him out of the castle!" He called after Iruka's retreating form.

Iruka sighed and didn't even bother answering Gai, after all it was really Sasuke's judgment he had to pass and if the demon did then there was really nothing Gai could do even if it ransacked some top officials rooms or painted the dining room pink.

Thinking first that the demon...he really had to think up a name for it, could do with a bath before meeting with the heir, Iruka lead it to his own chambers were he had his own private bath. Most upper class people did and Iruka didn't think the public baths would be a good place to bathe the demon.

The demon at first fought when Iruka tried to put him in the water, obviously not liking the feel of his fur being wet, but somehow he managed to coax him in, and got about scrubbing it's fur and skin clean of all the dirt that had accumulated during it's capture. The dirty blonde hair on its head revealed itself to be a bright mop of soft golden curls, and the ears and tail were a deep orange.

Finally when Iruka thought him clean enough, he dumped the last bit of clean water over the bright mop of hair and pulled the plug on the drain, emptying the water. Helping the young demon out of the tub he stood there dripping wet. Iruka was about to towel him dry when the demon suddenly shock himself vigorously sending water spraying everywhere.

Iruka wiped the water from his face and sighed, throwing a towel at the demon. "Use that, will you?" He asked it, and went to answer a knock at the door. A serving girl stood outside, holding the clothing he'd requested, a small slave kimono to attire the fox demon in order to present him to Sasuke. Turning around, he found the fox turning the towel in his hands with a puzzled look on his face.

Iruka tried to suppress a laugh as the demon pulled the towel up and laid it on his head, apparently when you were a demon you didn't bother with towels to dry yourself. Walking over to the demon who still had the towel on his head, with only the bright orange ears peeking out, Iruka lifted the edge of the towel and looked at the confused creature underneath. "Need help?" he asked.

The demon blinked at him, then glomped onto him thankfully, effectively soaking the front of Iruka's robes. The older man sighed and just proceeded to rub the towel on its head, drying the ears and the blonde hair. Eventually he managed to dry the demon entirely, and helped him into the clothes...they were a little short, but they would have to do. Iruka then combed out the messy locks of hair ...an action that the demon did not seem to like very much because he hissed a lot as Iruka pulled the knots out.

At lest he wasn't trying to bite Iruka which the older man though was a good thing. Finally deeming the fox demon presentable, Iruka put the brush down and admired the tame blonde locks, only to have all his work undone when the demon shock his head vigorously, effectively making it stand on end again. Sighing, Iruka didn't bother combing it down again. What was the point if the demon was just going to shake his head and do that again?

Iruka didn't like to have to reattach the chain to the demon's collar but didn't think that letting it get away from him and wandering around the palace on it's own would be a good idea. As he bent down to pick up the fallen chain, he heard the door open, and slow, steady footsteps entered the room.

"Hmmm, what's going on here?" A merry voice asked, eying Iruka, soaking wet and picking things off the floor, and the little slave demon perched on his chair on all fours, eying the newcomer suspiciously.

Iruka turned to Kakashi and eyed him suspiciously as well, but unlike the fox, Iruka had a reason for the suspicion. "Kakashi...aren't you supposed to be in a meeting?" he asked the sliver haired man who laughed beneath his mask that he took off for no one.

"Oh! Really? Was that today?" he asked innocently causing Iruka to sigh with frustration and annoyance. Kakashi was the heir's official guardian and was ruling instead until Sasuke was old enough, but the man couldn't have been the worst person in change of Sasuke's affairs.

Iruka twitched a little. "Yes, that was today..." He sighed and rubbed his temples. "Honestly, Kakashi, if you miss another meeting the Hyuuga will have your head on a platter."

"Aw, come on Iruka, it's not as bad as all that." Kakashi scratched the back of his head, and Iruka sighed, turning back to the task at hand. Trying to get through to Kakashi was like trying to talk to a wall and get an intelligent response from it.

Iruka turned back to the demon fox and attached the chain to the collar, the demon didn't seem to like it though and Iruka couldn't blame it at all for pouting.

Kakashi rested his chin on Iruka's shoulder as he looked at the demon fox, "Hmmm kind of young don't you think?" Kakashi asked then grinned, "I didn't know you were into that stuff Iruka!" he laughed and slapped Iruka on the butt.

Iruka turned red, and whirled around to glare at Kakashi. "Wha...how dare you, you perverted man!" He cried angrily, his face burning. "This child his a present for the prince, get your mind out of the gutter...and don't you ever touch me like that again!"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, but it was obvious he was smirking under the mask. "My...touchy today, aren't we?" He leered closer to Iruka.

Red faced, Iruka glared at the man who he knew was just grinning under that mask enjoying Iruka's embarrassment all too much. Trying to control his anger he turned away from Kakashi and looked down at the wide eyed fox demon staring up at him, apparently he had not expected Iruka to explode at the sliver haired man like that.

"Come..." He told the demon and tugged a little on the chain to get him to move. The demon hopped off of the chair and looked from the silver haired man to Iruka as Iruka continued to glare at him. "You should get to that meeting." He told him icily, before leading the child out the door and into the hallway. The fox demon looked questioningly at Iruka, but the older man didn't offer any explanation, just muttered about perverts under his breath.

Looking around him the demon stared at the tapestries that hung on the wall and resisted the urge to flop onto the soft carpet that was at his feet. He could only remember being in the cage for most of his life and before that, well he had never been inside a human home before so everything was so new to him. He still remembered the day his mother was killed and the humans had captured him, the years after that he would have preferred to forget but they would not leave him at all.

He'd been kept in that cage for so long, he'd hardly known how to stand after being let out of it. He was surprised at this human's behavior...he didn't hit him or yell at him, or twist his ears at all. Although he was still very, very hungry he ignored it; hunger was something he was used to by now...

"Sasuke..." Iruka called into the room, and the demon silently followed him as he led him farther into the room, eyes scanning every inch of it. He would like to stay here...it seemed very comfortable, but didn't want to touch anything for fear of being slapped as punishment by the humans, so instead he kept close to Iruka.

Iruka didn't hit or scold him when he did something that apparently was wrong. He just sighed or smiled and corrected the mistake he had made.

Looking around the room from behind Iruka the demon noticed a younger human sitting at a desk scribbling funny things on some paper. Not even looking up the dark haired human answered with a very annoyed voice, "What?" He demanded as if he could not be bothered with anything at that point in time.

"I'm sorry..." Iruka apologized for having interrupted his studies. "I found this at the marketplace and thought you might like to take it in..." He pushed the demon in front of him. The younger human, who had dark, blue black hair, looked up and fixed his equally dark eyes on the demon, who froze under his scrutinizing gaze. He fidgeted a little while he and Iruka waited for the young man to say something.

"And what am I supposed to do with this?"

The demon ducked his head a little at the cold tones; it was like however other human had talked to him, they were either cold or hateful. Behind him he could practically hear Iruka sweat.

"Um well I though he could be a-a personal attendant...or something..." Iruka said. Sasuke sighed and put down his brush before standing up and walking over to the young demon.

Sasuke's gaze swept over the demon's small frame as it stood there, uncomfortable under his stare. It was scrawny...malnourished, a bit disheveled, despite the fact that it had obviously been cleaned up to make it presentable. It was difficult to determine it's age, but it's body structure made it look like a child about his age, maybe younger. He didn't know what he was supposed to do with such a demon slave...

"Do you have a name?" He spoke directly to it in his matter of fact tone.

Blinking in surprise to the question the young demon ducked its head a little; behind him Sasuke could see Iruka was also shocked by his question to the demon.

"M-mother...always called me...Naruto..." the demon said and Sasuke was a bit surprised at the answer, weren't demons supposed to be almost incapable of speech? Answering in the most simplistic of ways? And here this one had answered the question and mentioned its mother. Looking over the demons shoulder Sasuke could see that Iruka was shocked to hear it speak so intelligently for a demon as well.

Sasuke looked back at the demon, who was still staring at the ground. "Naruto..." He said the name, and it looked up at him. Sasuke was even more surprised to see two deep blue orbs staring back at him, shy and frightened. He covered his surprise easily. "Do you know where you are?" He asked.

Naruto shook his head. "N-no...I know I came over the water in a big boat but..." He ducked his head again, obviously fearing it had spoken too much.

Staring down at the demon Sasuke was once again struck by how intelligent he was, well not nearly as intelligent as any human he knew but much more then any demon he'd heard of. Looking up at Iruka who was still looking kind of nervous over the fate of the demon before him Sasuke sighed almost in annoyance, "I'll keep him...it might prove interesting." Sasuke said and watched with mild amusement when relief flooded Iruka's face.

"I-I'm so glad." Iruka breathed a sigh of relief, but Sasuke didn't say anything in return. They boy was very reserved, and remained broodingly quiet most of the time. Iruka bowed to the young man. "I...I'll leave you to get acquainted then..." He said, and left the room.

Naruto watched as Iruka left, suddenly feeling very nervous. He liked the human with the kind voice and gentle eyes. This one peered at him as if he were nothing more than an interesting specimen...

Sighing Sasuke bent down to detach the chain form the demons caller. Naruto thinking that he was going to get smacked or his ears twisted ducked his head waiting for the pain to come. He was kind of surprised though when nothing happened and the heavy chain fell into his lap. Looking up again Naruto was surprised that Sasuke was sitting back in his chair and back to his lesson demon complete forgotten.

Naruto blinked as Sasuke picked up his pen again and started scrawling those strange symbols on it again. He watched for what seemed like forever, before boredom and frustration won out his common sense and he glared a little at the young dark haired boy. "Hey...Sasuke, is it?" He spoke up, but Sasuke didn't even look up from his lesson.

Still on his knees Naruto inched his way forwards little by little until he was right beside the dark haired boy. His nose twitched at the strong smell of ink and paper as he watched Sasuke scribbling away. Nothing maid sense to the young demon but watching Sasuke scribbling was kind of mesmerizing. Shaking his head in annoyance Naruto pouted and inched closer to the boy again before he finally lay his head down on Sasuke's lap...it was a bold move on his part but it was the only thing he could think of to get the boys attention that wouldn't result in punishment.

Sasuke suddenly stiffened, and sat very still as the demon placed his head casually in his lap as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He felt his face heat up at the unaccustomed contact...no one in his court would dare to get that close to him for any reason, the ebony eyed heir allowed no one to touch him without permission.

But the fox demon was young...probably frightened to be in this place, so Sasuke thrust down his anger as best as he could so he wouldn't explode at him. Naruto, however, still did not move from his spot on Sasuke's lap.

This would have been comparable to a staring contest were neither dared to move for any reason. Sasuke stared down at the blonde head of hair that was nestled in his lap, he wanted to shove the demon off his lap, he wanted to smack or scold him, he wanted to ...scratch the blonde behind the ears...wait were did THAT thought come from?

Controlling the blush that wanted to spread across Sasuke's cheeks the dark haired boy put down his pen and rested his hand on the blonde locks. He did not scratch the demon behind the ears though, and instead he asked Naruto if he was hungry. It was a safe question and it would get the demon off of him.

Naruto immediately lifted his head off of Sasuke's lap and stared up at Sasuke, his blue eyes large and watery. "R-really? You'll feed me?" He asked.

Sasuke blinked and shook his head. "You are under my care, I would not condemn you to starve..." He began, but stopped dead when the demon gave a happy squeak and suddenly threw his arms around Sasuke's waist.

Jerking back in surprise was not the best thing Sasuke could have done for that situation. Combined with Naruto's grip on his waist and Sasuke's sudden motion to escape, they found themselves laying in a heap on the floor, the chair Sasuke had been sitting on was now missing a leg.

Seeing what he had done Naruto jumped off of his new master and bowed his head to the floor trembling as he tried to apologize.

Sasuke sat up and rubbed his head, and eyed the trembling demon in front of him as Naruto apologized profusely. Standing up, he approached the blonde, and reached a hand down. Naruto instinctively closed his eyes tightly and awaited the blow that was sure to come.

So he was more than surprised when Sasuke's hand merely touched the top of his head, and kept it there, but made no move to hurt him.

"Baka, you have to be more careful." Was all Sasuke said before removing his hand from the blonde's head and walking over to the door where a small string thing hung. Naruto blinked in confusion not only from not getting punished but also from the fact that Sasuke pulled on the string twice before letting it go.

Naruto watched as Sasuke stood there and waited for something to happen...he didn't understand it much, but after a few minutes, the door opened and a young man stepped in, bowing to Sasuke.

"You rang, my lord?" The man asked.

"Yes...my chair is broken." Sasuke told the man, who nodded in understanding and moved to take the chair and the broken leg, and took it out into the hallway. Naruto could only stare at Sasuke...how could a human that young hold that kind of power over other humans? From what he'd seen so far, most people didn't enjoy taking orders from others. The man came back with a new chair and placed it where the old one had been, and Sasuke gave him orders to bring up dinner for two.

Nodding again the man left Sasuke alone again with Naruto, the young fox demon fidgeted a little, he didn't understand at all how Sasuke held so much power over that man or Iruka.

As he pondered this thought, Sasuke went back to his desk and sat in his new chair resuming where he had left off. Naruto sighed he was being ignored again. Being slightly bolder this time Naruto looked over Sasuke's shoulder and peered down at the scribbles.

He watched as Sasuke's hand expertly scribbled on the paper, in nice neat little lines, with the strong smelling ink. After a moment, Naruto peered closer so that his head was almost directly beside Sasuke's. "What are you doing, master Sasuke?" He asked, remembering what the slave traders had said about how he was to refer to his masters. He was bound to human service most likely for the rest of his life, after all.

He could feel Sasuke stiffen beside him, but it was quickly controlled as he continued to scribble on the paper. "It's called writing." Sasuke said and stopped to look at the fox demon, he had an inkling of an idea sparking in the back of his brain. "Do you want to learn?" he asked and watched as Naruto bright blue eyes widened.

"Really?" Naruto asked staring at him in disbelief. "Master Sasuke's...going to teach Naruto how to w-...wwwrritee?" Naruto asked trying out the new word. Sasuke blinked, he had actually thought that Iruka should teach him but he could do it he supposed.

Besides, his studies had become a bit tedious as of late...perhaps it would do him good to have something else to concentrate on. "Come, sit, and I'll show you." He instructed Naruto, who looked around. He didn't see any more of the things Sasuke was sitting on, so he instead tried to climb into Sasuke's lap. Sasuke turned red and cleared his throat.

"Baka...what do you think you're doing?" He asked the blonde, who blinked his blue eyes up at him in confusion.

"...Master told Naruto to sit..." He answered.

TBC…


	2. Chapter 2

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay but we've been super busy and everything so…well yeah. Anyway here's chapter two and I hope you all enjoy it, although I can't promise that chapter 3 will get here any faster, the things to do just keep piling up and there aren't enough hours in the day, you know?

And thanks to our new beta reader Sarah for reading it through to catch the mistakes that I never seem to see. We really appreciate the help

Anyway…onto the story!

Chapter 2

Sasuke sighed and rubbed his temples, he couldn't really blame the young demon, after all he had not been specific enough. Pointing to the taller stool beside the desk that Iruka usually sat at to teach him, Sasuke told the fox to sit on that.

Blinking in confusion, Naruto climbed off of Sasuke's lap and crawled onto the stool, perching on it like a fox or dog would with legs drawn up and hands holding onto the edge in front of him. Sasuke was very glad that was where the fox decided to put his hands because it covered the 'view' very nicely, but Naruto wouldn't be able to write like that.

"Naruto...sit like this..." He told the boy, sitting up straight in his chair as an example. Naruto watched, and shifted his body around so he was sitting like Sasuke was, legs dangling over the front, the parts of his body that were visible from under the short kimono now thankfully hidden very nicely. Sasuke sighed, and searched in his drawer for a pen he thought the blonde would be able to use without much difficulty and handed it to him.

Naruto took the pen and sniffed it, Sasuke wasn't surprised that he did that but when Naruto tried to put it into his mouth Sasuke stopped him before he could get very far. Holding into Naruto wrist Sasuke sighed, "Naruto...don't try and eat the fountain pen..." Sasuke said wondering how dumb this demon was.

Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke, "I wasn't going to eat it, I was only tasting it." he said.

Sasuke shook his head, why anyone would want to taste a fountain pen was beyond him, but demons were strange. Taking the pen in one hand, he positioned Naruto's hand with the other, and slipped the pen in so he was holding it properly. "You hold it like that..." He pulled out a piece of paper and slid it over to Naruto. "Try it." He told the demon, who looked at him, confused, and put the point of the pen onto the paper, much like Sasuke had been doing earlier, and drug it across. He stopped when he saw the long line of ink it left behind.

Leaning his face close to it Naruto sniffed at the ink, it smelled exactly the same as the ink Sasuke had been using. Before Sasuke could stop him though Naruto's tongue shot out and he drug it across the black ink, smearing it. Immediately, Naruto mad a face at the taste of ink stuck to his now black tongue.

Sasuke sighed and took the pen from Naruto's hands. "Baka, you aren't supposed to eat the ink either." He told him. Naruto tried to spit out the ink but it was effectively stuck to his tongue. Sasuke sighed again; baka was going to have to wash his mouth out now before he poisoned himself or something. Although he didn't even know if demons could get ink poisoning, it wasn't worth the risk.

Taking the demon's hand as Naruto just let his blackened tongue stick out so he wouldn't taste it nearly as much, Sasuke lead Naruto into his own personal bathroom off to one side of his sitting room. It wasn't a large bathroom like his private one with an outdoor bath but this one did have running water and was ideal for when he wanted to freshen up after studying.

Pulling Naruto to the sink, he turned on the water. Naruto didn't really have time to marvel at the fact that the water was coming out of the sink at all, he cupped his hands over the flow and brought it to his lips, sucking up the water and swishing it around in his mouth, spitting out the foul tasting ink. Sasuke sighed a little with relief, he'd been afraid the demon was going to swallow the water or something. At last, after a couple of rinses, Naruto turned his angry blue eyes on Sasuke. "Wh...why does master use such horrible stuff?" He asked, indignant. "It's poison!"

"Baka, you're not supposed to eat it." Sasuke said glaring at the demon. Naruto humphed and went back to rinsing out his mouth with water. After a few minutes though, just when Naruto seemed content in repeating the process forever, he finally stood up again, his tongue still slightly blue from the ink but the foul taste was gone.

His blue eyes were still narrowed a little at Sasuke, as if his trust had been betrayed when Sasuke had given him the pen with the poisoned liquid in it. Sasuke just sighed and turned off the water, took Naruto's hand again and led him back into the room, sitting him down and handing him the pen. "Now, don't lick the ink this time." He told him firmly before sitting down himself and picking up his pen.

He taught Naruto only a few of the basic characters that day, but somehow the blonde seemed to absorb information like a sponge and by the end of the day he was almost able to write them perfectly, and knew what they meant...although his writing was still a little messy.

It was mid day when their meal arrived and the demon was practically drooling over the food they had brought in. Sasuke sighed and thought that it would probably be better to just let the demon eat instead of trying to correct him on table manners, in fact, Naruto wasn't even eating at the small table, he was on all fours on the floor eating it as an animal would.

Sasuke sighed as he watched Naruto eat...and picked up his chopsticks to eat his own lunch, although he'd never had that great of an appetite. He winced as food flew from the plate and onto his rug...when Naruto was not quite so hungry he was going to have to teach him how to eat at a table with a pair of pair of chopsticks...although he was sure if he tried to stop him now he'd probably lose a hand in the process.

When Naruto had licked his plate clean and also picked up the crumbs on the floor not even caring that they had been on the floor in the first place, Naruto turned to Sasuke who was talking his time in eating. Naruto had inhaled his and was hoping for more although not expecting any. Sasuke sighed when he saw Naruto sitting like that, too fearful to ask for seconds but obviously still hungry.

Sasuke ate another couple of bites of food while the fox demon watched him, drooling slightly. At last he put his chopsticks down. "Are you still hungry?" He asked. Naruto jumped, and timidly nodded his head. Sasuke thought about it for a moment, and decided he wasn't all that hungry. "Alright, you can have mine, but first you have to sit with me at the table." He told the blonde.

Naruto looked confused for a moment but decided that he could do that for food. Crawling onto the chair beside Sasuke, he sat with his knees tucked under him. Sasuke sighed but decided that they could work on that later, after all it would probably be a bit awkward with the demons tail and the chairs had backs. Making a note to get a better chair for the demon. Sasuke placed the plate of food in front of Naruto but quickly took it away when the demon made a lunge for it.

Naruto looked at him with confused eyes, Sasuke had given him the food and then taken it away almost as quickly...the slave traders used to do that just to tease him, and then they'd laugh...but Sasuke wasn't laughing...

"You need to learn some manners, Naruto." Sasuke told him, and Naruto tilted his head at him in question. "First of all, in polite society, you don't eat directly from your plate, you use utensils." He told the blonde.

"U-tent-silss" Naruto tried out the word, very confused not knowing what they were.

"Yes utensils." Sasuke said picking up his chopsticks and positioning them in his hand, Naruto watched as Sasuke picked up a bit of noodle and placed it in his mouth. Once finished chewing and swallowing Sasuke handed the chopsticks to Naruto. "Now you try." Sasuke said and watched as the demon attempted to imitate Sasuke but failed miserably.

Sasuke smiled a little...he hadn't expected the little demon to get it in his first try, after all chopsticks were a bit awkward for beginners. He took the chopsticks back and showed the demon once more, and Naruto peered intently at his hand to see how the chopsticks were positioned in it. After eating another noodle, he handed them back to Naruto, who tried to get the chopsticks in his hand like he'd seen them in Sasuke's, and pick up a noodle. He managed to grab hold of it, but when he tried to lift it to his mouth, it dropped onto his lap.

Sasuke sighed as Naruto picked the noodles up with his fingers this time and ate it before his master could make him use the chopsticks on it. Again and again the noodles would either fall on the demons lap or table or even on the floor. Naruto was growing a bit frustrated and finally when he missed his mark again he dropped the chopsticks down and turned away from Sasuke, pouting.

Sasuke smirked a little and picked up the chopsticks. "You shouldn't give up so easily." He told the demon, who stuck his tongue out at him.

"Chopsticks are dumb." He answered, and looked away again, crossing his arms over his chest in a tantrum like way.

Sasuke sighed. "If you don't learn to eat with them you won't get very far around here." He told Naruto, who stuck his nose in the air.

"Naruto isn't supposed to get far" He told Sasuke. "Naruto is a slave."

Sasuke blinked, yes the demon was right, he was a slave and slaves weren't allowed to rise up above their designated status. The only thing that they could hope for was to be released by their master or have the cursed seal on their body taken off so that they could transform at will. But no demon in recent history had ever been allowed either option.

Sighing, Sasuke placed the chopsticks down, "Fine then, I'm going to have to get the staff to prepare you only finger foods in the future." Sasuke said, standing up and walking towards the door.

Naruto's eyes widened as he watched his master open the door, and tried to get to him. Unfortunately all he managed to do was fall off the stool and topple to the ground. This, however, caused Sasuke to stop and look back at him.

Naruto scrambled to his feet and ran up to Sasuke, grabbing the sleeve of his shirt.

"Where...where is Master Sasuke going?" He asked a little nervously.

Sasuke looked down at him and raised an eyebrow. "I have a meeting to go to soon, so I need to take a bath." He told the demon. "Just wait here...why don't you take a nap or something?"

Naruto looked nervously back into the room, there was the desk and chair by the window and the small table they had been eating at on the opposite side near some comfy looking sofas and chairs, there was also the bathroom door and another door close to that. It wasn't like the room was a menacing dungeon or cage or something but the young demon did not want to be alone in there without Sasuke.

Sasuke blinked down at the demon as he turned back to Sasuke and refused to let go of his master's sleeve.

Naruto looked up at him with wide, pleading, puppy dog eyes, as if begging Sasuke not to leave him there alone. Well...the blonde was dirty after his little adventure with the chopsticks, and had noodles and sauce stuck to his face and hands, as well as a few drops on his legs from where he'd dropped noodles. At last he sighed. "Fine, you can come with me then..." He told Naruto.

Naruto was about to glomp onto his Masters arm but Sasuke stopped him by holding a hand up, "You're going to have a bath." Sasuke told him and watched as the demons eyes when wide again. "B-but Naruto's already had a b-bath..." the demon wined and looked apprehensive. Sasuke smirked and picked a noodle that was suck to a whiskered cheek and held it up, "Really...I couldn't tell." Sasuke said in a dull tone of voice.

Naruto pouted. "B-but Master Sasukeeeee..." He tried to whine, but Sasuke held firm.

"Yes, that's right, I am your master and as such I order you to take a bath...now come." He walked into the hallway and looked behind him at Naruto, who was still standing in the doorway. Naruto looked to Sasuke, then back at the empty room, then dashed out of the room to huddle at Sasuke's side, ears drooped.

Sasuke lead the way to his private bath, the one that contained an outdoor hot spring he thought that it would be better for the demon that way. Wait …why was he concerned about a small fox demon so much? Maybe because the state of his slave reflected on himself although where he'd heard that Sasuke didn't know. Still, he thought it was a viable excuse... reason.

He led Naruto into the private bath, and instructed him to get undressed, then handed him a towel. He refused to look in Naruto's direction as he heard the rustle of fabric as the demon removed the short little kimono he'd been wearing. With a sigh, Sasuke undid the buckles on his clothing and peeled off the first layer, but stopped when he felt a light tug on his sleeve. He looked to Naruto, who was standing there, buck naked and blushing profusely...luckily he had his tail positioned in a way that Sasuke couldn't see anything he shouldn't have, but still his heart caught in his chest.

"M-master Sasuke...I don't know what to do with this..." Naruto muttered holding out the towel.

Trying to hide his blush, Sasuke turned his head away, "You...you wrap it around your waist..." Sasuke said not looking to see the confused expression on Naruto's face.

"Ohh..." was all he head as Naruto proceeded to wrap the towel around his waist. Sasuke kept his eyes on the water as he stripped himself bare and grabbed his own towel.

"Master Sasuke, what happened to your tail?" Naruto suddenly asked in a concerned tone of voice.

Sasuke closed his eyes and pulled the towel around him. "Humans don't have tails." He told the demon shortly. He didn't know what it was about this stupid demon that was making him feel funny, but whatever it was he didn't like it...and why did Naruto have to ask such stupid questions anyway?

"You don't?" Naruto asked, blinking. "But how do you balance?"

Sasuke blinked at the question but sighed knowing that it would take too long to even fathom why the demon asked that question at all. "We just do." He answered before stepping into the hot spring. The rocks were kind of slippery but thankfully he did not fall. Naruto maid a face at Sasuke's short answer and eyed the hot water suspiciously. Sasuke had already removed the stray noodles that had plastered themselves to Naruto's skin but he still didn't see why he had to have a bath now.

Sasuke looked up at the fox demon who was hesitating at the water line. "Hurry up and get in, baka." He told Naruto, who frowned at him and stuck out his tongue.

"Fine...but I don't want to get my fur wet..." He muttered and stepped forward onto one of the rocks surrounding the hot springs. His foot immediately slipped out from under him and he pitched forward with a surprised yelp. He resurfaced a few seconds later, his fur completely drenched, and sputtering water.

Naruto stood there looking like a drowned rat as he stood up trying not to slip again. Behind him he could hear his master chuckle slightly which only seemed to make the situation much more annoying. Figuring that he was already wet, Naruto swam the short distance to his master and sat there, water up to his nose just glaring at the dark haired man who had ceased his chuckling and smirked back at the demon.

"And you asked me how I could balance?" Sasuke wondered, shaking his head. Naruto narrowed his blue eyes at him a little more and looked away. Why did master Sasuke have to be such an ass? He wondered bitterly.

Sasuke couldn't help but smirk at his demon's predicament; Naruto was acting like a little kid who wasn't getting his way.

Naruto's pout only lasted for a moment then it was replaced by an evil smirk of his own. It never even entered his head that he shouldn't do what he was about to do to his master, after all, his master was a kit just like him. Using his already wet tail Naruto smirked as he swiped it though the top of the water, effectively drenching his master.

Sasuke jumped as the water splashed across him, then stood there glaring at his slave, as the water dripped from his dark locks of hair.

"Heheh, now Master is as wet as Naruto!" Naruto declared triumphantly, flicking his tail back and forth.

Sasuke glared at him for a moment longer before an evil smirk of his own spread across his face...Naruto wanted to splash, did he? Well, two could play at that game.

Naruto squeaked in surprise when his master effectively drenched him again. Sneezing to get the water out of his nose Naruto pouted before glomping onto Sasuke's back and hanging on. Sasuke could not splash him there, but apparently he could do other stuff. Naruto barley had time to take a breath before Sasuke ducked under the water bringing the leech on his back along for the ride.

Coming up for air, Naruto looked even more like a drowned rat this time around, but he was not willing to give up the fight. As soon as Sasuke's head came up over the surface of the water, unfortunately, he was met by a bucket full of the hot water over his head. Naruto giggled and retreated to the other side of the spring in hopes of escaping Sasuke's revenge...he was fully enjoying himself, the last time he had played like that had been back when he was still with his mother.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the playful little demon that was now perching on the rocks crouching on all fours with his sopping wet tail twitching back and forth. Smirking, Sasuke went to swim over to the blonde but dived under before he got too close. Naruto's eyes widened as he watched Sasuke swim towards him under the water. Soon though he disappeared and left the demon searching for his master, wondering where he had gone.

As the demon scanned the surface of the water for any sign of Sasuke, the dark haired boy came out of the water directly in front of him and grabbed hold of Naruto, laughing as he pulled him into the water. Neither boy noticed Naruto's towel slip off, having not been tied properly in the first place.

Still being held in his masters arms Naruto surfaced and began spitting out the water that had tried to drown him. He glared at his master who was smirking at him obviously enjoying almost drowning his slave. Naruto pushed away from him and crawled back up onto the rock only to realize that his towel was now floating in the water next to Sasuke. Naruto squeaked in surprise and tried to hide himself with his waterlogged tail, unfortunately the wet fur did not work as well as before.

Taking his next course of action, Naruto ducked back into the water to hide his shame before Sasuke could turn around and see that he'd lost his towel.

Sasuke turned to find his slave huddled in the water red faced, and smirked. The blonde was obviously ready to admit defeat...no one bested Uchiha Sasuke, especially not little fox kits who didn't know anything.

Naruto was turned away form him apparently not paying attention so Sasuke smirked and swam up behind him.

Naruto head Sasuke swimming towards him but he hoped that his master would not do anything after all he couldn't could he? Or...could he? Naruto squeaked in surprise when Sasuke grabbed a hold of him and dunked them both under the water. Apparently Sasuke didn't realize that he was holding onto his buck-naked slave that could be suggestive to someone watching.

They resurfaced again and Sasuke shook the water out of his hair, still holding onto the demon, who seemed to be too embarrassed about something to try and fight back. That's when Sasuke noticed the white towel float by in the water...had he lost his towel? No, his was still wrapped securely around him...

His eyes grew wide when he realized that the blonde in his arms was the one without a towel and he suddenly became very aware of the position he was in.

"I had No idea!" a shocked voice sounded though the out door bath, Sasuke immediately let go of Naruto and stared in horror as Jiraiya stood standing on a rock looking down at them. Blushing red with anger and embarrassment, Sasuke snagged Naruto's towel and handed it to him before turning and glaring at the perverted man that stood before him. It didn't help that Sasuke was still treading water and Jiraiya was standing on the rocks above them.

Naruto hastily pulled the towel back on, although it was awkward to do in the water, and cowered behind Sasuke. This white haired human was kind of scary...not as scary as the one with the big eyebrows, but still...

Jiraiya, however, seemed all too happy about the whole thing. "I see you've found a playmate, young master, and I thought you would remain a virgin forever!"

Sasuke's face reddened another degree as he glared daggers at the man, "Jiraiya..." Sasuke whispered "I'm going to really hurt you..." he threatened and the white haired man only laughed.

"Oh sure, sure. But that doesn't stop me from oh, I don't know, mentioning it to a few certain people..." Jiraiya laughed again as Sasuke threw a rather large rock at him.

"You say a word to anyone and I'll have you thrown out of the palace!" Sasuke cried out angrily, but the threat only made Jiraiya's grin broader.

"Sooo you admit that there's something going on..." He leered towards Sasuke, who glared daggers at him.

"I said no such thing!" He yelled back

"Ohhh... they why is the stone cold Uchiha swimming around with a naked..." Jiraiya squinted and apparently noticed Naruto's fox ears for the first time, "A demon..." he said then stared. "SASUKE! You know very well the taboo about having intimate relations with demons!" Jiraiya cried and hopped to a smaller rock closer to the boys and glared down at Sasuke. "I'm very disappointed in you...at the very lest you could let me borrow him first."

Sasuke glared up at the man. "First of all...I'm not having intimate relations with anyone, and second of all...you are not to touch one hair on Naruto's head, he is my property, not yours." He threatened. In fact, the very idea of Jiraiya's hands on Naruto made his stomach turn...he didn't know why, but he sure as hell wasn't letting him 'borrow' his demon for any reason.

Jiraiya sighed as if his whole world had crumbled but then he perked up, "Oh well, it's not like it was that big of a deal anyway. After all I would much rather prefer a female demon over that scrawny boy."

Sasuke twitched and glared up at the white haired man, "What are you doing in my personal baths anyway?" He demanded.

"Oh..." Jiraiya scratched the back of his head. "I was just strolling by and heard you laughing in here...it was such a rare event I had to come in and see what was up with my own eyes, you know?"

Sasuke's glare increased to the amount that should be able to kill...if one could kill with just their eyes, that is. "Get out." He told the man, pointing at the door. Jiraiya shook his head but did as he was bid...after all Sasuke was the future ruler of this place.

Sasuke sighed but didn't let his tense muscles relax, just because it looked like the pervert was gone didn't mean he really was.

Naruto looked up at Sasuke flustered face as they floated there in the water, he had not understood much of what the scary white haired man had said. Poking Sasuke in the side Naruto intended to get some answers. "Ne, master... what did he mean?"

Sasuke sighed and looked at him. "About what?" He asked warily.

"About...intimate relations...what are those?" Naruto wondered, tilting his head to the side.

Sasuke blushed. This had to be some kind of a joke...Sasuke wasn't laughing.

He cleared his throat. "Well...uh...intimate relations...you know...kind of like..." He searched his brain for something that the blonde would understand. "...mating..." was what he finally came up with.

Naruto eyes widened, "Ne, you mean like making little kits?" Naruto asked and Sasuke really thought that Naruto did not know the process involved in 'making little kits' as the demon put it.

Sasuke sighed, "Umm close enough..." he said and made a mental note to get this demon a personal tutor...there were way too many things that he didn't know, and Sasuke did not really think he was the best person to teach him.

As Naruto seemed to ponder this, Sasuke was somewhat surprised at his own thoughts. He'd already started teaching him to write...and had tried to teach him how to use chopsticks, and now he was actually considering finding someone to teach...a demon. He shouldn't care that much about what this demon did or did not know...he was a demon, he was supposed to be there to serve him, and nothing more.

Shaking his head in confusion, Sasuke swam to the edge of the pool and pulled himself out with Naruto fallowing closely behind. Grabbing a fresh towel, Sasuke replaced his sopping wet one and began to dry himself. Looking up at the dripping wet fox demon who was standing there as if wondering what to do next Sasuke couldn't help but think how ridiculous the demon looked with his fur clinging to his tail and his hair plastered to his head.

A smirk appeared on his face and he tossed Naruto a clean towel. "Dry yourself with that." He told him, and Naruto looked at the towel...why did people keep giving him these things? Remembering how Iruka had dried his fur earlier in the day, Naruto tried doing that, and actually found himself dry pretty quickly. Then he picked up his clothing and looked at it, confused. He couldn't really remember how he was supposed to get it on, so he just pulled it over his head and turned to Sasuke. "There, how do I look?" He asked with a grin.

Sasuke paused in tying his belt around his waist and looked up at Naruto, the demon's fur was rubbed to the point it was fuzzy and his tail was no better as it puffed out behind him. What really got Sasuke was the fact that the demon was wearing his snort Kimono on backwards. Sasuke suppressed a smirk as he looked at the demon, how could anything ever possibly consider this demon to be a dangerous creature as he stood there with bright blue eyes asking if he looked okay.

"You look like a hedgehog." He answered, still smirking, and Naruto looked confused.

"Naruto is not a hedgehog, I don't have spikes." He told Sasuke, as if he had rocks in his eye sockets or something.

Sasuke shook his head, and went to Naruto, somehow helping him to get the kimono around the right way without having him take it off again. Then, before he combed his own hair, he turned the instrument on Naruto's puffed up fur in an attempt to get it to lie back down like it was supposed to. It wouldn't do to have people seeing him with the scruffiest demon in the kingdom, right?

Unlike with Iruka, Naruto did not hiss in annoyance or pain as Sasuke combed out his hair. Naruto himself was very surprised at how gentle his master was when he combed out his fur. Actually it felt really good...

Sasuke combed the blonde hair out as the fox knelt in front of him, and was very surprised to hear what sounded like purring coming form the demon's throat.

Blinking, he paused in his combing and moved forward...yes...Naruto was actually purring...foxes could purr? Well he supposed demon foxes must be able to. In any event, the blonde must have been content sitting there, and Sasuke continued to comb his hair, trying not to think too hard about anything. The fact that he could make Naruto actually purr...well it brought images to his mind he really shouldn't be thinking.

Finally Sasuke deemed the fox done and Naruto stood up, allowing Sasuke to inspect his handiwork. He vaguely wondered if foxes were colour bind because Naruto never once mentioned that fact that his Kimono had changed. Or it just could be due to the fact that Naruto had been too nervous to take note of something as trivial as the colour of his short Kimono. Naruto smiled back at Sasuke loving the feeling of his clean fur.

He swished his tail in front of him and felt his fur with one hand. Sasuke had brushed it smooth...he couldn't remember when it had felt so clean and tidy...his mother had cleaned him meticulously, but in that tiny little cage he'd been living in there really wasn't much of an opportunity to clean. And the thing he was wearing now was different...but he liked it, the fabric was a lot smoother and felt nice on the skin. He looked up as Sasuke picked up a comb and ran it through his own hair, and inched forward to get a closer look.

Sasuke tried to ignore the fox as he inched closer and closer, concentrating instead on combing out his hair with none of the gentleness he had used on Naruto. Finally though he was right beside Sasuke and he took the comb from his master's hands. Sasuke blinked in surprise but relinquished the comb and allowed Naruto to brush out his hair, Sasuke figured it was a way of thanking him.

He closed his eyes as Naruto's hands ran the comb through Sasuke's hair, trying to be as gentle as Sasuke had been for him. Every now and then Naruto would use his fingers to get through a touch knot, obviously thinking they were the best tools for the job, and for the moment Sasuke let himself enjoy the feel of the blonde's fingers running through his hair. After all it was not often that Uchiha Sasuke allowed himself to relax and let his guard down.

Actually it wasn't the best time for him to get his guard down at all because Iruka burst though the door looking very much out of breath.

"S-Sasuke!" Iruka said with relief seeing the Uchiha heir sitting there. Iruka didn't even bother to ask why the demon was combing his hair as he rushed over to Sasuke. "D-do you realize what time it is, Sasuke?" Iruka asked looking like he was going to have a nervous breakdown.

Sasuke blinked and looked at him, while Naruto stopped coming and brightened at the sight of the man who had brought him from the markets...although he smelled like he was agitated about something...

"No..." Sasuke admitted.

"Your meeting is starting in five minutes!" Iruka threw his hands up in the air. "If you aren't there the fathers of your perspective suitors will become very angry...they're already becoming frustrated by your absence..."

End Chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3

Hello everyone. As usual, another late chapter, and as usual my life has become hectic again. To be perfectly honest for the past almost two months I haven't had time for this sort of stuff. My Grandpa passed away and family from everywhere came to see us, and things have only recently started to settle down from that. Now I have work coming up so I finally buckled down and got a chapter done before I'm super busy again for the next few months. To warn, it may be a while before the next chapter so please be patient, everyone. And thanks to everyone for their positive reviews and I hope the story continues to please…however long it takes to get it all up.

Lost Ninja #1 (Jamie)

Chapter 3

Sasuke looked very confused for a moment but then his eyes widened as well, "Shit..." he cursed and struggled to get into the rest of his clothing. With the help of Iruka he was made presentable. It wasn't that he was eager to meet his future possible fathers in law or his possible future wife, but he did not want to look like he had intended to insult them. Not only by being late but being disheveled, it was unthinkable.

At last Sasuke was presentable in a dark blue robe that Naruto thought made him look every inch the powerful person he supposedly was.

"Naruto, come." He told the blonde, who started and obeyed, following his master as he went out into the hallway. He really shouldn't be bringing his slave along, but he didn't have time to bring him back to his quarters and he didn't trust to leave him alone right now, particularly with that pervert Jiraiya wandering around. Iruka followed as well, being Sasuke's advisor as well as his teacher.

Naruto followed closely behind as they walked though the hallways, the plush carpets beneath his feet soon turned to wood panels as they walked. Sticking close to Sasuke, Naruto looked very much like a child as he followed his master around. Finally though they made it to their destination and Iruka looked back at the demon that was almost like Sasuke's shadow. He was surprised that the two had bonded so well to each other.

Even more surprising was the fact that Sasuke allowed Naruto to grab a hold of his arm whenever he seemed overly nervous...Sasuke, as a general rule, didn't let people touch him, he didn't trust them. Perhaps it was just different because Naruto was not a human...but still it was odd.

Iruka pushed the thoughts aside and swung open the large doors, bowing to the side to let Sasuke enter. Sasuke strode in confidently, with his little demon trotting after him and gazing at the room in wonder. The ceiling was so high...and the table stretched out across most of the room.

Naruto emitted a small squeak and hid behind his master when he saw there were many people seated at the table, many of them looked like high-ranking noblemen or very wealthy merchants. Naruto fidgeted a little as the cold of the stone floor bit into his feet and the high ceilings maid him feel so small. He didn't really feel all that comfortable being in such a big open area after all the time he spent in a small cramped cage.

"Good afternoon." Sasuke bowed to the people seated at the table. "I apologize for my lateness, but something came up..." He told them, and took his seat. That something...namely Naruto, looked around uncertainly and finally sat down on the ground beside Sasuke's chair, unwilling to leave his master's side.

There were many raised eyebrows from the noblemen at the fact that there was a young demon sitting at the feet of their daughter's potential husband. But there was no point in drawing attention to this because Iruka cleared his throat and that seemed to be the signal that the meeting was started, and everyone completely forgot about the young fox.

Sasuke listened as the noblemen all outlined the reasons why choosing their daughter to be his wife would be best, and tried to look interested. Unfortunately most of the reasons were along the lines of the amount of power that marrying each girl would bring him, and the property it would add to his kingdom...Sasuke didn't particularly care about being powerful, or having lots of land, and to be frank none of the girls suited his fancy much...he knew he should pick one that he liked out of all of them but he found the whole situation bothersome.

Iruka must have seen that he had long ago lost interest in what the noblemen were saying about their daughters. It was almost impossible to tell though that Sasuke was zoned out because he looked precisely the same as he did when he was paying attention.

"Um my lord, might I suggest a...a ball?" Iruka asked hoping that he would get Sasuke's attention with that and not make it seem too obvious that his lord was being extremely rude.

Sasuke's outward expression didn't change but Iruka could tell that what he had said had gotten through to Sasuke. He looked at his teacher for a moment, before shrugging. "That sounds good." He answered, and then was forced to listen to the noblemen talk to each other, exited at the prospect of Sasuke dancing with one of their daughters and deciding she was the one for him. Sasuke sighed and absentmindedly reached down to rest his hand on his demon's head, why did it suck so much to be an heir?

Naruto who had actually fallen asleep during the long boring discussion, perked up when his master rested his hand on his head. He all but purred as Sasuke scratched him behind the ear, Naruto couldn't help himself, it felt sooo good. It was a good thing that he was blocked from view by the table; the noblemen might not take too kindly to having their daughter's future husband have a demon rub his face against Sasuke's leg in pure enjoyment.

Iruka, who was standing behind Sasuke, however, did notice it...and if he thought he'd been surprised earlier at how close the two seemed, he was utterly shocked now. Sasuke was actually letting the little demon...snuggle his leg? And he didn't even hardly seem as if he noticed, he was acting like it was all normal...he could only hope that the noblemen didn't notice...

Sasuke listened as the noblemen discussed what time the ball should be held...each, of course, was looking for some way to keep one of their rival's daughters out of it...this whole thing was ridiculous, in Sasuke's opinion, considering he didn't want to marry anyone...

Finally though, Sasuke had had enough and he stood up abruptly, "I'll have the ball one month from today." he said not actually caring, he could have had it two years from that day but he didn't think that it would sit well with the noblemen. "If you want your daughters to be there, then I don't care how they get here or when they show up." He said, and he could practically see Iruka sweating behind him.

"Umm of course your daughters' needs well be attended to while they are here..." Iruka hastily put in.

If the noblemen were put off, however, they didn't show it. A month, after all, was more than enough time to get ready and make sure that their daughters could all attend the ball. They all gave their assent to 'Lord Sasuke's excellent decision', and Sasuke decided that he'd been there long enough...he couldn't stand all of this upper class nonsense anyway...he'd never needed to dress in anything opulent, or wear jewelry on every appendage, and he couldn't understand why every other person in the world felt the need to.

Declaring the meeting over Sasuke abruptly stood up and left the council chambers, with a sleepy eyed Naruto following him. Naruto tried to suppress a yawn as he followed his master through the hallways, he wasn't sure where they were going, but right then he was almost too tired to care. That had been the best sleep he'd had in a while but he was still really tired.

Sasuke sighed as he loosened his robes and pulled all the sparkly jewelry he had donned for the meeting.

He made a quick stop at his room to deposit those useless items and change into something he felt more comfortable in, but left almost as soon as he'd gone in. Naruto was a little confused, but followed his master dutifully, after all, good slaves weren't supposed to question their master's sanity out loud.

At last, Sasuke opened a wooden door and stepped into a large garden area...this was his favorite spot for relaxing when life got too stressful, it was quiet there.

Behind Sasuke, Naruto's eyes widened as he stared out at the greenery and flowering trees and plants. He had not been around so much nature since he had been a kit with his mother. The young demon seriously wanted to squeak with delight and dash out to the garden. But he restrained himself, his master had not entered the garden just yet, Sasuke stood there breathing in the scent just allowing his body to relax.

Naruto watched Sasuke's face as it relaxed...he hadn't even realized how tense Sasuke had been...those boring humans in the colorful robes must be hard on a person to have to deal with. For a human, he realized, Sasuke was actually not bad looking, even if he did scowl a lot...

Sasuke finally reached out his arms and stretched, glancing down at his demon, who was bouncing eagerly on his feet. With a small smile, he waved at the garden. "Go ahead, have some fun." He told Naruto.

Naruto did not have to be told twice, without a word Naruto bounded into the garden and looked very much like a playful puppy as he dashed out on all fours before finding a patch of clover, thinking it the perfect place to roll around on the ground. Sasuke smirked as he watched Naruto roll around, he was obviously enjoying himself.

Naruto breathed in the scent of the grass...he couldn't even hardly remember a time he'd been able to feel grass under his paws...and the cage he'd had to live in was so smelly even his nose could barely pick up the smell. As he nuzzled his nose in the wonderful green stuff, Sasuke walked across the garden to where a large, shady tree was growing and plunked himself down on the grass next to it.

Naruto perked his ears up when Sasuke sat down and he rolled over so he was looking at his master, Sasuke looked much better leaning against the tree with his eyes closed and the annoyance relaxed. But what really caught Naruto's attention was the large tree Sasuke was sitting under. It had been a long time since he had even seen one of them, much longer then feeling the grass.

He rolled onto his four paws and crawled over to the tree, smelling it. The leaves overhead rustled quietly, throwing small shadows over the grass and those under it. Naruto placed a hand on the rough bark of the tree...it was strong and sturdy, and full of life, even though Naruto was sure humans must have put it there, and he'd thought humans only had the power to destroy things. Glancing at his master, Naruto couldn't imagine him recklessly destroying anything...

Naruto grinned suddenly and snuggled up to his master.

Sasuke's eyes shot open when he felt Naruto snuggle up to his shoulder, he wasn't all that surprised to see the demon there but Sasuke had thought the fox would still be exploring every nook and cranny of his garden.

"Naruto..." Sasuke said and was about to move away from the contact when he heard something that sounded very much like someone was sniffing back tears.

Blinking, he leaned a little closer to the blonde head...yes...Naruto was crying...

Sasuke should have just left the little fox demon to his sadness...after all, what business was it of his if his slave cried...but somehow, Sasuke couldn't stand the sound, it tugged at his heart...since when did Sasuke have a heart?

"What's wrong with you?" Sasuke asked...it wasn't exactly a polite question, but this is Sasuke we're talking about.

Jerked out of his own self misery, Naruto looked up at his master, he had not meant to start crying, and actually had not realized he had been until Sasuke had asked what was wrong. Reluctantly Naruto let go of his master's sleeve; after all he shouldn't ruin his master's things. Drawing his legs up to his chest Naruto wiped at his tears.

"I-Its just that I...I miss... my mother..."

Sasuke looked at Naruto for a second, wiping at his tears. He'd mentioned his mother before...when Sasuke had asked for his name, but he really had no idea demons could get that attached to one another...he'd always just assumed that they were near brainless things that ran around and destroyed things if not kept in check with a seal, or given some menial task to keep their small minds occupied…

"...What happened to her?" Sasuke found himself asking, despite himself.

Naruto sniffed and wiped at his runny nose with the back of his hand, "S-She...She's gone...They hurt her really bad..." Naruto closed his eyes against the tears, he didn't know if his mother was really dead, but she looked so still... Naruto was completely lost in his painful memory.

Neither mother or kit had much on there minds that day, his mother had been telling Naruto that he would be meeting his father soon, but Naruto was to interested in the colorful butterflies that fluttered around them. The slavers had attacked without warning, throwing spears and shooting arrows at his mother.

She had protected him, even after the spears pierced her skin and the arrows stuck in her side. Naruto could picture it all vividly...there had been blood everywhere, and his mother had fought tooth and nail to keep them away from her son, before she finally went down. Naruto had tried to wake her but she didn't move...and then the humans grabbed him.

Naruto whimpered at the memory and Sasuke looked at his slave, he was uncertain what to do, Naruto was sitting there wide eyed with tears streaming down his striped cheeks.

Finally Sasuke reached out a hand and drew the whimpering demon to him. Although Sasuke had given up on being shocked at Naruto's strangeness, and disregard to demon taboo, Sasuke could not help but want to hold the whimpering thing close to him...after all it had made him feel slightly better when he was little.

Naruto clutched at the thick fabric of Sasuke's clothing and buried his face in his master's chest, forgetting that he shouldn't cry on him and ruin his clothes. After a few minutes, his sobbing slowed into hiccups as he began to calm down. Somehow his master's presence was comforting to him. At last, when even the hiccups had stopped, Naruto just sat there, refusing to let go.

Sasuke was kind of surprised at his own actions, after all this was a demon slave...and a male demon at that. When had Sasuke begun to even care about demons, let alone a boy demon? He didn't have any close friends nor did he particularly like to be touched. But here he was, holding onto Naruto and wanting to give him comfort.

But he couldn't bring himself to let go...it was such an easy thing, Naruto had stopped crying after all, so his excuse that the poor thing was distraught was becoming useless...all he had to do was remove his arms from around the blonde and resume relaxing under the tree...

But his arms felt like they had been glued where they were, no matter how hard he thought about it, they refused to obey him and move.

Finally though Naruto himself moved a bit and Sasuke released him as if he had been burned. Sitting back up Naruto sniffed and rubbed at his eyes before bowing his head to Sasuke, "I-I'm s-s-sorry Master Sasuke." Naruto trembled a little, he was the worst slave ever, he not only broke down and cried but he had cried on his master's robes. Thinking himself in store for punishment Naruto trembled a little was he waited for a heavy hand to fall. After all the slavers had treated him much worse and he should accept his punishment.

He heard Sasuke sigh, and knew his master was annoyed with him, and screwed his eyes shut. Why did he have to mess up everything? All a slave was required to do was what his master told him to and he couldn't even manage that...

Sasuke, who had been glaring at the grass to try and get rid of whatever feelings it was that had made him cling to Naruto like that, turned when he heard a quiet whimpering coming from his slave's direction.

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly when he saw Naruto there with his head pressed down against the grass, his shoulders trembling. Staring at the fox in confusion for a moment, it finally donned on Sasuke that Naruto was waiting for Sasuke to punish him. Sighing again he sat back against the tree. He couldn't punish the boy for missing his mother, even if he was a demon. Sasuke knew what it felt like to lose a loved one.

He glanced at the demon again...then blushed and looked away. "...Get up." He said, annoyed with himself.

Naruto lifted his head a little to look warily at his master, who, it seemed, was still annoyed. "But...Naruto was a bad slave..." He muttered, confused. Why wasn't Sasuke punishing him? He'd cried all over the front of his clothes, he could see the wet spot from here.

Sasuke twitched, and looked at the confused demon. "Listen, you're not a bad slave until I tell you you're a bad slave got that?" He asked with a bit more force then he had intended. Naruto cringed a little and looked at Sasuke with wide eyes,

"So...is Naruto a bad slave?" the fox ask confused. Sasuke had not actually said he was a bad slave but he sure sounded annoyed for some reason, and that reason could only be Naruto right?

Sasuke let out a long exasperated sigh and looked away from Naruto, a tinge of pink on his cheeks. "No, Naruto, you aren't a bad slave." He answered, still sounding annoyed.

Naruto, however, brightened, and inched closer to his master.

"So Naruto's a good slave?" He asked eagerly, his tail wagging. Sasuke inched a little away from the blonde as he shoved his face up close to his own...his cheeks reddened a little more.

"Oh..." A voice said from in front of them, and both boys stopped moving entirely to look up and see a young man wearing a long dirty shirt with a high collar that covered his face, and wore strange dark glasses. "...I apologize sir, I didn't know you were with someone..." The guy told Sasuke in a flat tone, as if he really didn't care less but had to apologize anyway.

Sasuke schooled his face into his normal stoic expression as he stood up. He humphed as he looked at the taller boy around his age, "I was leaving anyway, Shino." he answered and didn't even bother looking back to see if Naruto was following him as he left the garden.

Naruto blinked looking up at the strange boy that had chased away his master with out even meaning to. Shino was simply staring back at the demon, or at least Naruto though he was.

"Um...hello..." Naruto said a little nervously, but the guy didn't answer him...probably thought it was beneath him to talk to demons. Shuddering a little at the guy's creepy gaze...and the fact that he had a spider crawling on his arm and didn't seem to mind, Naruto turned to chase after his master...only to find that Sasuke was gone...he'd just left Naruto there all alone...

Naruto could feel instant panic rise in him...he didn't like to be alone...it reminded him of all those nights spent sitting in that cage in the dark...

Shino watched as the demon's eyes widened and his breathing became shallow...it was almost like he was hyperventilating or something...

Naruto looked around franticly. He had to find his master, but he couldn't see him anywhere, although that did not mean he couldn't smell Sasuke, right? Dropping to all fours, Naruto closed his eyes and sniffed at the ground. Yep there was Sasuke's scent right there in front of him, now all he had to do was follow the trail

Shino looked at the small demon as he crawled along the ground, face plastered to the grass trying to trace Sasuke's sent. Shino didn't even bother to shake his head at the young demon's oddness; after all he had work to do.

Naruto followed the scent to the door, and pushed it open, crawling down the hallway. Luckily there was really no one else around and Sasuke's scent was clear and strong, leading directly down the hallway, so Naruto followed it, still crawling on all fours, since the scent was stronger where Sasuke's steps had fallen. And besides, keeping his attention solely on this task kept him from thinking too hard about the fact that he was now by himself in this huge, confusing place.

Naruto stopped when he smelt someone else's scent right in front of him; it was too strong to just be someone that had passed by. Opening his eyes he found that he was staring at a pair of feet. Blinking in confusion he looked higher and higher only to find himself staring into the masked face of Kakashi who was looking down at him and Naruto just knew he was grinning.

"Hello there." Kakashi said sounding a little too happy for Naruto's taste.

"H-hello..." Naruto stuttered, ducking his eyes away from Kakashi's one visible one. "I-I'm trying to find my master..." He muttered.

Kakashi knelt in front of the blonde demon boy and placed a hand on his head. "So that's why you're crawling all over the floor like a lost puppy." He commented, grinning behind the mask. Reaching over, he touched Naruto's face and the blonde instinctively drew back a little. "Hmm...Master Sasuke certainly picked up a pretty little thing, didn't he?" Kakashi commented.

Naruto blushed at being called pretty, no one had ever called him that before at all. Kakashi drew his hand back and smiled kindly, "But you're lost right?" He asked and stood up, offering his hand to Naruto not caring that Naruto was a demon or a slave. "I bet it would be a lot faster if I just took you to your master and not have you sniff around for him, don't you think?"

Naruto looked up at him suspiciously, but he didn't smell threatening, so he let Kakashi take his hand and help him up. Naruto's knees were scraped from crawling around on the stone floor, and he had to straighten out his kimono a little while Kakashi waited patiently...he had a little book in his hands but out of the corner of his eye he was watching the little fox demon...he was very envious of Sasuke, indeed.

At last Naruto was ready, and Kakashi lead him down the hallway.

Sasuke cursed as he retraced his steps back to the garden, Naruto had not followed him at all and now was probably lost or something. 'Damn, I'm probably going to have to put a leash on him...' Sasuke thought. Although he didn't want to, it would really keep the young demon out of trouble. Dismissing the thought entirely he pulled open the doors that lead to the garden...only to find that Naruto was not there. Only Shino, and he had not even bothered looking up form his work, the guy was like that, very creepy.

Cursing again, he closed the door to the garden and stared down the long hallway, and the many hallways that branched off from it...this castle was huge...the little demon could be anywhere...what if he'd been found by Jiraiya, or something...Damn it, he should have been paying attention! Sasuke wasn't sure why he cared so much but he wanted his demon back. Now.

Sasuke had practically searched most of the castle before he had to stop and catch his breath, leaning against the library door. He was almost in a panic over the lost demon, and he didn't question why he was panicking, he just was and there was no room to think rationally at this point in time.

Sasuke was started out of his panic attack though by the sound of someone clearing their throat behind him. Damn, it was Kakashi, he could tell just form the sound of the pages flipping as he read that perverted book.

His eyes narrowed instinctively...he didn't understand why they had to pick HIM to be his representative while he grew of age to ascend to ruler ship. Turning around, he was about to yell at Kakashi for interrupting his search when he noticed a certain short blonde haired blue-eyed fox demon standing behind the silver haired man.

"I believe this belongs to you..." Kakashi was saying but Sasuke ignored him completely.

"Naruto! There you are!" He cried, relieved.

Naruto blinked once and didn't give Sasuke a chance to open his mouth again before he glomped onto his master. Sasuke sighed and rested his head on top of the blonde shock of hair, Naruto wasn't anywhere near the best servant in the world, nor did he even know the proper kind of respect to show his master, but Sasuke could not help but feel relieved to find him...of course, if anyone asked, he would flat out deny it.

"Well isn't this sweet?" Kakashi spoke up, reminding Sasuke that he was there. He glared at the silver haired man, who had that unmistakable grin under his mask. "Perhaps Sasuke has no need for a wife with this pretty little demon around..." He teased, scratching his masked chin.

Sasuke's dark eyes narrowed again, and he let go of Naruto, pushing the confused boy behind him. "Kakashi..." He said as politely as he could, disregarding the man's comment as if he hadn't even heard it. "Thank you for finding my demon, you may go back to your duties now."

Kakashi grinned, "Oh sure, whatever you say Sasuke..." he answered then leaned forwards and whispered, "Don't be too hard on him, its probably his first time."

Successfully dodging Sasuke's fist, Kakashi just grinned and retreated down the hallway laughing. Sasuke sighed and rubbed his temples, why was that man such a pervert? He was almost as bad as Jiraiya, but at least Kakashi kept to the perverted books and did not spy on the woman's baths...

Naruto watched the man walk away, confused. He looked to his master, who kind of looked like he'd just smelled something unpleasant. "...Master Sasuke...what's a...w-w...wife?"

Sasuke sighed, he should have just taken Naruto back to his room after the meeting, and he would have saved himself a lot of grief. "It's like...a mate for life." He answered quickly, hoping to get this conversation over with "Oh..." Naruto's brows knit together. "...Why doesn't master Sasuke need one?" he wondered.

Sasuke stopped and stared at the demon, he really did not know how to answer that question. He had just been told he needed a wife and had accepted it.

Naruto looked up at his master again, still confused. "Master Sasuke is just a kit, he shouldn't have a mate yet..." the demon said, of course not knowing human customs or anything.

Sasuke twitched, "I'm 17, dobe," He said with annoyance, "I was ready to marry two years ago, I'm not a kit."

Naruto peered at Sasuke, "Master is only 17? " he asked astonished at how young his master was.

"Yeah..." Sasuke raised an eyebrow, not understanding what 'only 17' meant...he was almost an adult, and should be taking control of his family's lands soon. "How old are you?" He asked, sure that the little demon had to be younger than he was, he still acted like a child.

"Naruto is..." Naruto thought about it. "...I think I've seen a little over 30 years..." He muttered. He couldn't really remember, the time he'd spent in captivity had become a timeless blur.

Sasuke stared at the demon, "You're 30?" he demanded, and Naruto nodded his head a little, Sasuke could only stare at him in disbelief. The child like demon in front of him was older then Kakashi, now that was just scary. "When...when will you be considered an adult?" Sasuke had to know, after all Naruto kept referring to himself as a kit.

Naruto's brows knitted together, he wasn't shear about when he was going to be an adult, "Ummm...mother said I could start looking for a mate when I turned one hundred..." Naruto said trying to be helpful. Having a mate didn't necessarily mean one was going to be an adult, usually when one had their first kit they were considered an adult.

Sasuke stared at him. One hundred? That meant that Naruto still had...seventy years left before he could even take a mate! By that time, Sasuke would probably be dead and gone...wait, why did he care about that anyway?

"B-but you look almost the same age as me..." Sasuke blurted out, completely taken aback by this new knowledge.

Naruto fidgeted a little. "M-mother always said I grew fast...a-and I-I'm not in my true form..." Naruto hoped he had explained it well enough for Sasuke's liking, it was hard to explain something when he didn't understand it either.

When he had been in the slavers possession none of the other demons would associate with him, and Naruto could not understand why. This usually happened when another demon would ask his age as well and then they would ignore him...it was strange.

Sasuke was silent, and Naruto feared that now Sasuke wouldn't want to speak with him anymore...maybe he was like those demons...maybe there was something wrong with him...he didn't want to lose his new master, he liked him...he fed him and didn't hit him...and Naruto felt safe with him. He glanced up nervously to find Sasuke staring at him, then lowered his eyes. He should have kept his mouth shut, now master Sasuke would hate him...

Naruto waited for either the sound of Sasuke's feet to signal that he was leaving or his voice telling Naruto to leave. But Sasuke did none of these things. Instead he heard a sigh and looked up to see his master thinking about something really hard.

Finally Sasuke looked up, apparently having given up on trying to figure something out, he humphed, "Guess I don't know as much about demons as I thought I did..." Sasuke said quietly and turned to go. Naruto dropped his eyes again, his master was leaving him, ignoring him just like the demons had... Naruto's thoughts were interrupted when Sasuke turned back to him, "Are you coming or not?" Sasuke asked, sounding annoyed.

Naruto looked up in surprise to see Sasuke looking behind him, with his arms crossed over his chest, waiting impatiently. The blonde did as he was told and rushed over to walk beside Sasuke, and nervously looked at his master out of the corner of his eye...he looked kind of upset about something...and Naruto thought it had to be him. His master was probably disappointed in him...He hung his head and quietly followed Sasuke back to his chambers.

Sasuke sighed as he shut the door behind his slave, the demon seemed to be depressed about something but Sasuke didn't have time to play 20 questions with him. Walking over to his bedchamber Sasuke pulled out some riding clothing, he had a ride around his estate every second day and today was it. It kind of annoyed him to visit all the peasants that would soon be under his care but he could not put it off for any reason other than he had a broken leg.

Sasuke ignored Naruto's bright blue eyes as he watched from the bedroom doorway, after all, they had taken a bath together, and Sasuke had to school himself not to blush about someone seeing him naked. After all, his future wife was going to have to see him naked...eventually.

After pulling on his riding clothes, Sasuke grabbed his gear and walked out of his bedchambers and across the room to the door. Naruto followed, staring up at him.

"Wh-where is Master Sasuke going?" He asked anxiously.

"I have to go out for a while." Sasuke answered.

"C-can Naruto come?" Naruto asked, not wanting to be left alone.

Sasuke considered it for a moment...but he was sure Naruto didn't know how to ride a horse and he knew what it would look like if he was riding around with the blonde on his horse with him...he had a reputation to uphold. Finally he sighed. "Not this time." He told Naruto. "Just wait here...and don't wander off."

Naruto looked down at the ground but nodded his head. After all, he was the slave and Sasuke was the master; he had to obey his master.

Without a backwards glance Sasuke left his chambers and headed to the stables.

Back in Sasuke's room, Naruto sniffed and wiped at eyes that stung. His master was ashamed of him, he didn't want to be near Naruto just as the other demons had not wanted to be near him either.

He stood there in front of the door for a while, trying to hold back the tears...he'd only had a master for less than a day and already he'd managed to make him hate him...he didn't want Sasuke to hate him, but how could Sasuke like a slave that couldn't get anything right?...Naruto was a bad slave...

He sunk to the floor and covered his face with his hands, crying. He missed his mother...he was all alone now...

TBC…


End file.
